A excellent piece by a fellow red For 40 years I have followed City. Some more, many less, it does not make my view more or less valid, but I have learnt much. The bottom line issue at City has been lack of direction and stability in purpose. We have not been anyone. Short periods of minor success with many years of dross. We have a billionaire owner , which is rare and unique. He tried to buy the dream, but for many reasons, it failed. I recall chatting to SL in the boardroom at Carlisle in our promo season ( Ruddy in goal, Boom boom with an overhead kick ) and the one thing I suggested to him, to have lasting impact was to build a legacy. I think SL has tried, the farce of Ashton Vale is a disgusting episode ( sorry , I believe in compromise, and the rubbish tip I grew up with, never was a village green, the compromised solution was intelligent and benefitted more people than less ) is the area he is most frustrated in, we need a proper ground, and whilst I feel a new AG is far worse from a community point of view, one way or another a ground will be done. Youth, we have been dire, even when we start getting going we lose kids to the Prem, but only because we took too long to invest in the academy. I fully expect SL to make it tier 1 sooner rather than later, as it is outside Ffp and is the area we, he, can make a huge difference. It is not just players, but the way you play that counts. But fans want it now, and SOD after one game this season will read total none sense on here, none sense because who thinks in 7 weeks a promotion team can be made. Players from last year insulted, a player on a league debut scrutinized beyond belief. It is madness. What is important is that we now have a club and manager focused on building a fine footballing team, of the highest order. Playing how the best teams play. Fluid formations and movement. Still Luddites talk of wingers, wake up, the world has changed. And. So must the fans. Football is no longer 442 We are finally on the right road , creating a club where football is played. As it is at the top levels, possession based, movement, technical ability is key. Financiallyviable , sustainable. It will take years to achieve,but we will do it. Expect little for 5 years or more, but by god when it cliks it will be huge. Youth and first team playing the same way, I hope in a bespoke Ashton vale stadium.I also hope SOD is here for years. He has the right approach. We have to change ,we are doing it, but it will not be quick. Look at Clough at Derby, one of the great quiet jobs in football. Rough moments but real direction. After 40 years , I actually think for the first time there is a direction, a proper football direction. We might get back to the Championship in a couple of years, but the real benefits will be when we make the Prem. I just hope we all have the patience to see it through. I firmly believe we will be in the Prem in the next 5 to 10 years, and we will have. Sold a youth player for over 5 million. Watch this space, we are in a good way COYR
A decent piece and some home truths documented re the years of mis-management and huge mistakes. I really hope the owner and board have learned their lessons, and for starters the Adomah situation doesn't become Maynardgate MK 2.
Completely agree, we need to show patience and support. Yes there will be disappointments and frustrations along the way both on and off the field such as the ticketing fiasco on saturday. I am just happy to be supporting a real football club,my local team that I have followed since I was boy 40 years ago. And one that does at last seem to have direction and purpose.
We need to be patient this season - a young side is likely to be inconsistent - need to get fully behind them even when things are not going well
I've been going to Ashton Gate man and boy for close on 60 years now and apart from Alan Dicks I would say Sean O'Driscoll is already showing himself to be the best manager in my lifetime of supporting Bristol City, in the way he is trying to completely change the team and the way it plays football. I would however take exception to one point made Players from last year insulted some of the players from last year insulted the fans big time when they couldn't be bothered to try. Players have to earn the respect of the fans you can not play rubbish week in week out for most of 2 or 3 years and expect the fans to keep saying ah he's just learning or some such rubbish when you are a well paid senior pro either you perform or you can expect the fans to be on your back. I grew up watching Ateyo, Williams, Garland, Sharpe, Derrick, Merrick, Collier, Gibson and others far to many to mention and whilst they had bad games I can never remember leaving the ground be it AG or Swansea/Tranmere on a cold wet weekday night thinking well that lot didn't even try. Last season and the one before there were games where from before the kick off the players just looked like they wanted to be at home counting their paypackets rather than be out playing for the shirt. As long as the players are putting in effort and playing for the shirt I will support them no matter what the results are but don't expect me to support those who treat me with distain by not caring about the team I support and whose wages I help pay(even if it is a very small percentage) I am Bristol City through and through and fully expect to be til the day I shrug off this mortal coil I don't expect the same level of commitment from the players to one club now like there used to be but I do expect the players to show the same pride in the shirt as the fans do whilst wearing it.
SOD may be a quiet man but looking at his interview post Bradford where he spoke of what he had learned about players I really dont think he will tolerate players not buying into his philosophy or putting in a shift.
I really hope so, and that his actions tell us he's clocked who is worth their place and who isn't. We've all had a gut full of under achievers, or worse as Hawk points out, the players over the last few years who didn't appear to be the slightest bit interested at 15.00 on a Saturday afternoon.
Years ago when I played semi pro I had a manager can't remember his name atm but he was a real quiet man he would talk to us before every game about how he wanted us to play etc now we had a lot of senior Pros ex Football League players and the like and it went in one ear and out the other if it ever went in at all, Went to the ground one November evening for training and there were loads of juniors there but hardly any first teamers I was about to go home because I thought I'd come in on the wrong day when my mate called me over to say hey did you hear almost the whole first team squad has been transfer listed and told not to train there's only 4 of us left and the juniors to pick the side from for Saturdays match. We got hammered 17-1 that Saturday and lost 6-4 the following Saturday we started winning again soon as we had some new signings but no one ever ignored the quiet manager again.
Hope he doesnt sack everyone then Hawky Dont fancy getting beaten 17-1 at Tranmere Top piece RR, inspiring stuff
All very well and good on the comments side of the equation but it begs me to ask why SL has put up with the underperformances for as long as he has? Surely a man of his obvious business acumen must have seen the lack of commitment that was rampant through every vein of the life blood at Ashton Gate and yet he chose to take a softly softly approach at every turn in the downward spiralling road back to League One. I appreciate that supposedly we have a new credo at the Gate under SOD but how many of the long termers like myself are saying that they have heard it all before? The followers of Bristol City, no matter what their age, deserve better than what has been put before them and hopefully the board of directors and everyone employed by Bristol City start paying attention to the people who matter most and they are the ones who follow this team through thick and thin. Get your act together now.
Couldn't happen at AG most of last seasons team are long gone. I remember that defeat as it was the first and only time I ever played in goal after leaving school, our youth keeper got carried off just after half time and I got stuck in goal as the gaffer had remembered me saying once I had played in goal for my school team once. We were already 13-0 down and I even scored from the spot, as I was the only Penalty taker left.
I agree 200% with Hawkmoonfy and I am now in my sixty-third season as a City fan. I'm moving back to Bristol in mid September and the first thing I will do is buy a season ticket. And to Hawks list of those who never gave less than 100% while wearing a City shirt, I will add:- Jack White, Jack Boxley, Jimmy Rogers, Ernie Peacock, Alec Briggs, Gordon Parr, Tony Cook, Bob Anderson, Trevor Tainton, Arnold and David Rodgers, Don and Brian Clark, Terry Bush and hundreds of others who I have watched and appreciated as City players. I don't remember any period in the first sixty years like the last three when so many have cared so little while in the City Red. Well maybe 1959-60 season. I will be patient, my god have all us older ones not been patient for the whole of our lives, but I am getting sick and fed up with those who are being paid shed loads of cash by me, thousands of other loyal City fans and especially Steve Lansdown who turn up on a Saturday and do not even do us the honour of trying. And SO'D has my total backing at present but unless he realises the dross he is putting on the team sheet is the same dross that got the previous four managers sacked and relegation last season, he will begin to lose our faith very quickly. Some of you are looking at it with rose tinted specs. Watch the video of the first goal disaster v Bradford. the problem is not so much Fielding's rush out but the two or three seconds prior to this. Why did Fielding rush out? Because yet again a long hoof up the middle put one attcker clear of the two City central defenders. Now revisit all last seasons match videos and I'll lay very short odds that you will find at least another dozen incidents almost identical to last Saturday's. And with one common denominator! Do I need to name him? It's all very well for the initial poster to say we should not criticise at this stage of the season. But we lost two points to a very average team and only one point per home game leads only to one certainty.
